Search

In response to the sustainability issues that agriculture faces in advanced economies, agroecology has gained increasing relevance in scientific, political, and social debates. This has promoted discussion about transitions to agroecology, which represents a significant advancement. Accordingly, it has become a growing field of research. We reviewed the literature on and in support of farm transitions to agroecology in advanced economies in order to identify key research challenges and suggest innovative research paths. Our findings can be summarized as follows: (1) Research that supports exploration and definition of desired futures, whether based on future-oriented modeling or expert-based foresight approaches, should more explicitly include the farm level. It should stimulate the creativity and design ability of farmers and other stakeholders, and also address issues of representation and power among them. (2) Research that creates awareness and assesses farms before, during or after transition requires more holistic and dynamic assessment frameworks. These frameworks need to be more flexible to adapt to the diversity of global and local challenges. Their assessment should explicitly include uncertainty due to the feedback loops and emergent properties of transitions. (3) Research that analyzes and supports farms during transition should focus more on the dynamics of change processes by valuing what happens on the farms. Research should especially give more credence to on-farm experiments conducted by farmers and develop new tools and methods (e.g., for strategic monitoring) to support these transitions. This is the first review of scientific studies of farm transitions to agroecology. Overall, the review indicates that these transitions challenge the system boundaries, temporal horizons, and sustainability dimensions that agricultural researchers usually consider. In this context, farm transitions to agroecology require changes in the current organization and funding of research in order to encourage longer term and more adaptive configurations.

With the rapid growth of professional intra-urban agriculture (PIUA) projects in the Global North, sponsors, projects leaders, and experts developing these projects are seeking to evaluate their sustainability. As existing assessment tools are not adapted to PIUA projects, they establish their own assessment practices. Our study examines these practices to identify their original features, criteria, and indicators used. To this end, we analysed 19 case studies of different PIUA projects. We identified four dimensions underpinning sustainability assessment, namely, internal sustainability, external sustainability, the project leader’s credibility, and the innovative nature of the project. We also shed light on the wide diversity of the 67 assessment criteria identified, as well as the qualitative nature of 78% of indicators used. In addition, our study highlights that assessment practices evolve over time as the project progresses from ideation to implementation, according to the variety of assessment situations. Our study is the first to provide an in-depth exploration of PIUA stakeholders’ sustainability assessment practices and to shed light on their specific features. Our results afford a better understanding of the way the sustainability of PIUA projects is assessed and contribute to reflection on the design of a flexible assessment tool, considering the diverse criteria and practices used by stakeholders to assess the sustainability of PIUA.

Over the last few years, an increasing number of agricultural R&D actors have sought to discover and get to know farmers’ practices that they consider as innovative, unconventional, or promising. We refer to these approaches, all of which aim to support the design of farming systems, as ‘farmer innovation tracking’. There is still a lack of knowledge, however, about the specificities of the approaches adopted to track innovations and how they contribute to design processes. To explore these questions, we studied 14 initiatives in France led by actors from different R&D networks. We analysed the data collected using agronomy and design science concepts. Three outcomes emerge from this work. (1) We shed light on the common features of innovation tracking. We outline five stages that structure all the approaches: formulating an innovation tracking project, unearthing innovations, learning about them, analysing them, and generating agronomic content. (2) We characterize six contributions of farmer innovation tracking to design processes: giving rise to creative anomalies, shedding light on systemic mechanisms to fuel design processes on other farms, uncovering research questions, stimulating design in orphan fields of innovation, circulating innovation concepts, and connecting farmer-designers with each other. (3) Finally, we highlight three tracking strategies: the targeted tracking of proven practices, the targeted tracking of innovations under development, and the exploratory tracking of proven practices. This article is the first to propose a theorization of the farmer innovation tracking approaches, thus enriching the agronomic foundations supporting farming system design. The purpose of our paper is not to provide a turnkey method, but to highlight concepts, mechanisms, and points of reference for actors who might wish to develop farmer innovation tracking in different contexts in the future. By revealing their contributions to design processes, this article seeks to contribute to the institutionalization of innovation tracking.

CONTEXT Researchers studying agriculture and researchers studying food share common interests in working on the sustainability of agrifood systems. Yet, they form two distinct scientific communities, which often struggle to work together due to both scientific specialization and existing disconnections between agriculture and food production standards. However, there is today a crucial need for research to generate new knowledge and innovations to meet the numerous challenges towards sustainable agrifood systems. OBJECTIVE This paper therefore presents how two scientific communities (those of agriculture and food) collectively explored cross-community research topics, which could foster coupled innovation in agrifood systems. METHODS Two innovative design methods - KCP and matching-building – were combined to propose a dedicated design process fostering this collective exploration of cross-community research topics. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS Twenty cross-community priority research topics were thus proposed to address various sustainability challenges. These topics were designed to become common purposes for future research collaborations aiming to produce relevant knowledge to open new avenues for coupled innovation towards more sustainable agrifood systems. The originality of the 20 topics was discussed, in comparison with 25 international papers highlighting research priorities regarding food systems. SIGNIFICANCE The originality of the paper is thus twofold: the article details the original dedicated design method used to build cross-community research topics, and presents the 20 research topics designed using this method.

International audience; Despite their crucial importance for food product quality, harvest management practices remain understudied. Harvest is particularly challenging in the fresh fruit sector, due to the fruit’s perishable, variable, and seasonal nature. In this study, we seek to better understand the agronomic, organizational, and institutional drivers influencing fruit harvest management, using the Corsican clementine harvest as a case study. In that production area, the standard “Clémentine de Corse” protected geographical indication is used by local actors to define and enforce appropriate harvest practices. The data were gathered through interviews with the farmers, packing station managers, and shippers who form the first link in the production chain. We show that harvest practices are shaped by the interactions between three management levels: (i) the plot, where picking teams select the fruit to be picked from those to be left on the tree for the next pass; (ii) the farm level, at which growers synchronize the harvesting dynamics with the ripening process of a set of plots with heterogeneous degrees of maturity; and (iii) the marketing level, where shippers and packers must match up the harvesting dynamics of all their suppliers with the demands of their buyers’ market. According to this multi-level perspective, we analyzed the agronomic, organizational, and institutional drivers influencing the diversity of harvest management practices among farmers, and the influence of the protected geographical indication on the harvest process. Our study is the first to highlight how harvest practices are constructed and how various hierarchical levels of agricultural systems act together to shape them. Based on these results, we draw generic lessons and perspectives with a view to improving fresh fruit harvest management.

International audience; Nitrogen (N) fertilizer is commonly applied to wheat crops (Triticum aestivum L.) during the vegetative growth to meet crop requirements. Current decision rules for N application result in N losses to the environment, and thus to low N use efficiency, due to excess of N fertilizer and/or poor synchrony between soil supply and crop N demand. Despite existing tools and methods to manage N fertilization, combining maximum grain yield, high grain protein content, and minimum N losses to the environment remains challenging. There is thus a need to provide decision rules to apply N fertilizer at the time of optimal weather conditions and high crop N demand, without exceeding N crop requirements, thereby increasing N use efficiency and limiting N losses. Here we developed, for the first time, a modeling approach based on the Azodyn model and using the mathematical framework of the viability theory to build decision rules where 1) N is applied only if weather conditions are optimal and if there is a risk that a period of N deficiency becomes detrimental to grain yield and protein content, and 2) the N rate is the minimum sufficient to prevent from detrimental N deficiencies whilst minimizing N losses to the environment. We computed metric of robustness to build decision rules for timing and rates of N fertilizer in the view to manage crop N nutrition according to such targets. We showed that, comparing those decision rules with current recommendations, by simulations over 20 years, the average total N rate could be decreased by 50 kg N ha-1 and N losses by 42 kg N ha-1 whilst maintaining similar yield, and reaching grain protein content above 11.5% more often (17 years out of 20, compared to 10 years out of 20 with current recommendations). In respect of those theoretical results, the next step should be to experimentally assess performances in real situations and to assess to which extend the method could help farmers to change their practices.

International audience; In the cotton-production zone of Burkina Faso, poor soil fertility and limited access to appropriate fertilizers call for alternative approaches to sustain productivity, such as the introduction of more legumes into the agroecosystem. Legumes have nearly disappeared from local cropping systems under the pressure of the cotton monocropping model. To develop new legume-based cropping systems using a bottom-up approach, this study was based on local farmers' agroecological innovations. In a first step, called on-farm innovation tracking, five innovative legume-based cropping systems were identified and characterized on farms located in the study area through interviews with "innovative farmers" who had designed and implemented these cropping systems: (i) Sorghum and legume (cowpea, soybean or peanut) intercropping in rotation with maize or cotton; (ii) Soybean as a cash crop in rotation with maize or cotton; (iii) Red cowpea intra-annual succession with a biomass crop; (iv) Mucuna in rotation with maize; and (v) Pigeon pea in rotation with maize. In a second step, these five "innovative cropping systems" (ICSs) were implemented in "participatory prototyping trials" (PPTs) in two communities located in the study area were they were evaluated during field days by local farmers ("field-day farmers") having no previous experience with ICSs. By comparing evaluations made by innovative farmers with those of field-day farmers, it was shown that (i) locally implemented ICSs adapted to local drivers of change are of great interest to other farmers, and (ii) the study's two-step participatory approach is an original and relevant way to co-design and introduce innovations.

International audience; AbstractCirsium arvense (L.) Scop. is one of the most problematic perennial weeds in European countries, causing notable yield losses in both conventional and organic arable cropping systems. C. arvense control is essential because its infestation spreads rapidly and has negative impacts for several years due to its biological characteristics. Herbicidal treatments are the main control methods used in conventional input-based systems, but they are not always more effective than cultural practices. However, the cultural practices currently employed in arable cropping systems are often expensive and time-consuming. To guarantee the efficiency of these control practices, knowledge of C. arvense biology is essential. This review synthesizes the key points from the previous literature on C. arvense biology that can be mobilized to this end and analyzes the literature on different strategies of C. arvense control without herbicides. These strategies are (1) limitation of C. arvense dispersal, (2) weakening of root reserves, (3) extraction of roots, (4) competition with cultivated species, and (5) physical destruction. There is also a review of reported experiences using these strategies for C. arvense control, and relevant information is presented on associated biological processes to optimize the efficacy of each practice. The benefits and drawbacks of these strategies for C. arvense control are also emphasized, as well as the possibility of combining them in cropping systems, even though some knowledge gaps remain. This review confirms that one individual practice, implemented in 1 year only, is not sufficient to provide satisfactory, long-term control of C. arvense; therefore, further studies on combinations of control strategies and processes are required. There is a particular lack of knowledge about the duration of the effect of C. arvense control strategies.

International audience; More and more questions are currently being raised as to what the farm equipment of the future ought to be and how it should be designed to best meet contemporary challenges in farming. In Western countries, innovation in agricultural equipment is focused on a dominant model in which the agro-industry designs and patents standardised equipment for farmers. However, today's ambitions for agriculture, with agroecology in the lead, require us to devise farming systems that are adaptable to social and ecological uncertainties, and to recognise and embrace the diversity of situations in which farming is practiced. There has until now been little research on equipment design processes consistent with these principles, and this research helps to fill this gap. To address this issue, we studied the French "Atelier Paysan" R&D organisation, created to support on-farm design of suitable equipment for agroecology. Based on design theories, we analysed three aspects of Atelier Paysan's design activities: specific properties of the equipment designed under its aegis; specific features of the design processes; and roles that Atelier Paysan takes on to enable the design of this equipment. Our results show that all the equipment designed was appropriate for the designers' situations and requirements, and adaptable to other situations. It emerged from design processes in which the farmers had the support of R&D to design both their own equipment and the cropping systems for which it would be used. We call this the design of coupled innovations, and show that farm equipment and cropping systems are designed together during experiments. Lastly, we show that the Atelier Paysan R&D organisation supports these design processes in three ways: it enables farmers to share their experiences of on-farm design; it makes available a set of resources to stimulate farmer-driven design of new equipment; and it brings together designers scattered all over France around a shared ambition for agriculture. This work opens up avenues for research: (i) to explore an alternative to the dominant design, which would rely on coupled innovation design processes and allow for the emergence of appropriate and adaptable equipment that complies with agroecological principles; and (ii) to explore ways of organising open-innovation processes for agroecology, by supporting farmer-designers, and thus rethinking the roles of 'users' in these processes.

International audience; Storm Xynthia crossed France’s western coast between 28th February and 1st March 2010. It hit the Vendée and Charente-Maritime departments hardest, as storm surge flooded up to 23,000 ha of coastal agricultural areas (i.e. polders), causing severe damage to farming operations. However, farm-level damage in the aftermath of seawater flooding is an issue that has rarely been explored in the literature. Here we investigated the effects of storm Xynthia on agriculture at the farm scale. We focused on the case study of Saint Laurent de la Prée research farm, a mixed crop–livestock system that was severely hit. All damages were described and economic losses were quantified for the years 2010 and 2011. The results show numerous consequences of the storm in terms of crop and fodder production losses, but also farm infrastructure repairs, crop restoration and animal health problems. Economic damage costs were high, reaching €71,720 in 2010 (€500/ha flooded) and €56,195 (€390/ha) in 2011 for the case study farm. The discussion highlights the farm-level impacts of seawater flooding and the crucial factors that can explain the damage caused to agriculture by storm events in coastal areas. The results are also discussed in the wider context of global warming which is expected to cause sea level rise and more frequent storm events in the future. The vulnerability of coastal agricultural areas to storms thus exposes broader issues of coastal flooding risk management and specifically the allied protection–remediation–adaptation measures. The conclusions underline the need for future research to address prospective scenarios and subsequent adaptive strategies.

International audience; The green revolution and globalization have profoundly transformed agri-food systems, leading to standardized food products of diminished taste quality. Geographical Indications (GIs) have emerged as powerful regulatory tools for sustaining alternative quality models. In this paper, we analyze GIs as governance tools for “terroir niches”, viewed as sociotechnical systems whose functioning is influenced by specific resources. Building on this framework, we study the reconfiguration of the Corsican clementine production area under a recent Geographical Indication. We show that the innovation trajectory was driven by specific resources (climate, with-leaf marketing), leading to the emergence of a niche that conflicted with the rules of the citrus regime. The implementation of a GI in the early 2000s strengthened this endogenous innovation pathway since it gave the niche renewed protection and prompted systemic changes. These results open prospects for cross-fertilization between GI studies and the Multi-Level Perspective on sustainability transitions.

Cet article propose une analyse historique du processus de verrouillage du système agroalimentaire en défaveur des légumineuses à graines, à l’aune des théories évolutionnistes. Plusieurs mécanismes d’autorenforcement permettent de comprendre pourquoi ces espèces sont de moins en moins cultivées en France face à un système agro-industriel qui s’est spécialisé en faveur des céréales, favorisant à l’amont l’usage d’engrais azotés de synthèse et limitant à l’aval les investissements pour les légumineuses en alimentation humaine. Cet article s’interroge alors sur les perspectives de déverrouillage.

For several decades in France, the balance-sheet method has been recommended and widely used to calculate N fertilizer rates. However, despite the scientific consensus on this method and its adoption as a regulatory tool, high N losses are still frequently occurring, suggesting limits in the implementation of this method. We assumed this consensus might hide discrepancies between some scientific concepts and the ways farmers use methods and tools. We combined a systematic analysis of official reports delivered by groups of experts (Nitrate Groups) from the 20 French regions concerned by the fifth reform of the Nitrate Directive, and interviews with experts, advisors and farmers. We identified principles of the method that reveal discrepancies between the theoretical model and its use, highlighting the gap between scientific concepts and their possible implementation. Here we show three frequent controversies that create uncertainties in calculating N fertilizer rates with the model. 75% of the Nitrate Groups debated about the estimation of the target yield, showing that there is no common understanding of the concept. In practice, farmers tend to fix the target yield as the value they desire more than the average value that can be reached in their fields. Although scientists emphasized the importance of measuring soil mineral content at the end of winter, sampling and uncertain extrapolation of the measurement lead to doubts and uncertainties, weakening the reliability of the N rates estimation. 45% of the interviewed advisors and seven Nitrate Groups put forward limits due to the regulatory implementation of the balance-sheet method, such as the reduced exploration of alternatives adapted to local specificities, or the prevention of an agronomical approach by an administrative one. These controversies among stakeholders showed that despite the rigor of the method and the scientific consensus on it, its implementation creates uncertainties, doubts and errors in the calculated N rates. Despite 40 years of agronomical and technological progress, major points of the method are still obstacles for its use. Considering these discrepancies between the model and its use, we suggest that, instead of persisting in improving incrementally each term of the balance-sheet method, we should switch to the innovative design of a completely new fertilizer calculation method, where users are taken into account from the beginning of the design process. (C) 2016 Royal Netherlands Society for Agricultural Sciences.

This paper tackles two questions. Our first question addresses the multi-actor activity that is visibly required for building radical innovations like eco-innovation. Our second question addresses the tricky issue of how to assess contribution to ecological transition when innovation projects are still in the fuzzy early-upstream phase. In this aim four research projects are selected and analyzed in this paper because they share a common scope—the development of new processes or materials tied to the conversion of biomass. Through the analysis of the actors interactions conducted in these projects, of their perimeters, of their sustainability objectives and of their results we show a limit of the eco-innovation capacity of these projects linked to the limits of their crossdisciplinarity.

International audience; The commercial quality of fruit is the result of a combination of internal (acidity, sugars, juice, etc.) and external characteristics (shape, size, color, visual defects, etc.). On citrus, the internal maturity of fruit is often reached prior and independently to their external maturity, inducing the use of degreening practices to artificially color fruit. However, for some sectors where degreening is not authorized, such as organic farming or upmarket, it is important to understand the co-occurrence between fruit coloration and internal ripening, and its impact on fruit quality and harvesting management. Our study was based on a monitoring of the color and acidity of Protected Geographical Indication “Clémentine de Corse” orchards of producers in 2013 and 2014. Our results show that: (i) the dynamics of acidity drop during maturation are similar from one plot to another but staggered in time; (ii) fruit coloring occurs at different times during acidity drop; (iii) the synchronization between the coloring process and acidity drop determines both the quality of harvested fruit and the period during which orchards are harvestable, which we called the “harvestability window.” This study sheds new light on the quality of citrus harvested without fruit degreening and leads to propose actions to anticipate internal maturity evolution according to the coloring and spreading of the harvest period. The fruit acidity model obtained in this study will be extended to a practical application tool to predict fruit acidity and quality for a better-controlled harvest management.

article publié en ligne le 10 avril 2019; International audience; AbstractFarmers are being urged to change their practices in order to reduce agricultural pollution. These changes may affect working times and organization, and farmers often mention this to explain the difficulties they have in adopting a new practice. But little is known about the work-related changes (e.g., working time, organization, skills) engendered by a change of farming practice, or about the information that farmers need for deciding on and implementing a new practice. In order to design tools to help farmers when adopting more agroecological practices, the objective of this paper is to identify what work-related information is useful to them for changing their practices. We interviewed 16 farmers in France and we then characterized the types of work-related information they had applied. We focused both on changes that were systemic (reducing tillage or diversifying crops) or less systemic (low-volume spraying or mechanical weeding). We performed a qualitative analysis with an iterative method, alternating between gathering data from the farmers and theorizing about what happens on the work front. We then performed a quantitative analysis of the results, based on chi-squared tests, to identify which factors influence farmers’ work-related information needs. Our findings showed, for the first time, that farmers apply a wide range of information about work changes, concerning performance of new operations, resources used, work organization and competition between activities, and the arduous or rewarding nature of farm work. We showed that the types of information needed change during the process of introducing a new practice. In the first phase, farmers gather mainly generic information about the focal operation and the resources required. In the next phase, they run innovation experiments, producing their own information on how their work is changing and how to reorganize it. Based on these results, we suggest some paths for designing support tools.

Rapport IDEAS-INRA-AgroParisTech; Les ateliers agrifood : Conception d’un agenda de recherche partagé pour des systèmes agri-alimentaires plus sains et plus durables

International audience; Grain-legume plants fix atmospheric nitrogen in the soil and thus do not need nitrogen fertilizers. Therefore, grain- legumes can potentially decrease global warming, as nitrogen fertilization is responsible for half of all agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, grain-legumes have many functional and nutritional properties both as feed and food. Despite the fact that the European Union has granted considerable subsidies to promote grain-legume cultivation, their production continues to fall and there has been no satisfactory explanation as to why. This study provides an answer by showing that a situation of technological lock-in has resulted from the co-evolution of crop systems, based on an agrochemical paradigm, public policies, and market dynamics that promote cereals. This process began with the historical choice by European and French public institutions to relegate grain-legumes to feed in direct competition with imported soybeans. Moreover, interrelated factors, such as breeding selection, public subsidies, and food systems, have favored increasing returns to adoption for cereals to the detriment of grain-legumes. Finally, the evolutionary economics approach used here identified several actions that must be implemented together, such as agricultural cost-accounting methods, nitrogen management, institutional innovations, and market out lets to promote grain-legumes and move towards more sustainable agriculture.

International audience; Innovation is central to the strategic orientations of many agronomic research institutes. Little attention has been paid, however, to the links between knowledge production and design processes, defined as processes resulting in the creation of new objects in pursuit of specific goals. Our aim was to analyze the conditions and specificities of the production of scientific knowledge on agro-ecosystems through design processes. Drawing on design theory, we carried out a cross-analysis of nine research projects that included design processes and produced innovative objects (for example blending rules for variety mixtures in low-input crop management routes). These projects were managed by researchers from a range of disciplines (agronomists, geneticists, crop physiologists, and ecologists), and varied in their duration (from three to 15 years) and scale (from plot to landscape). We combined semi-structured interviews with these researchers and the analysis of various documents (scientific papers, PhD theses, technical publications, and research projects or reports). Our findings show that in all case studies, original and general scientific knowledge on agro-ecosystem functioning was produced at various stages throughout the design processes. The originality of this knowledge lies with the new representations that emerged, either of the agro-ecosystem processes at stake, or of farmers' practices. We show that these representations were formed gradually, through successive iterations of both refined formulations of the design target and new knowledge produced, required for its design. Finally, our results highlight the role of confrontation with real-life situations (particularly through agronomic diagnosis or experiments) in the evolution of these representations. Engaging in design processes can thus be seen as a research practice that leads to the production of original knowledge, allowing for a greater diversity of actors' ways of knowing to be taken into account.

Designing a research agenda for coupled innovation towards sustainable agrifood systems: a collective innovation process to identify common purposes for collaboration in research. SISA2018

International audience; Crop diversification is considered as a major lever to increase the sustainability of arable farming systems, allowing reduced inputs (irrigation water, pesticides, fertilizers), increasing the heterogeneity of habitat mosaics, or reducing yield gap associated with too frequent returns of the same species. To free up paths of collective action, this article highlights obstacles to crop diversification, existing at various levels of the value chains. We used a threefold approach: (i) a cross-cutting analysis of impediments to the development of 11 diversifying crops (5 species of grain legumes, alfalfa, flax, hemp, linseed, mustard, sorghum), based on published documents and on 30 interviews of stakeholders in French value chains; (ii) a detailed study (55 semi-structured surveys, including 39 farmers) of three value chains: pea and linseed for animal feed, hemp for insulation and biomaterials; and (iii) a bibliometric analysis of the technical journals and websites (180 articles) to characterize the nature of information diffused to farmers. We highlight that the development of minor crops is hindered by a socio-technical lock-in in favor of the dominant species (wheat, rapeseed, maize, etc.). We show for the first time that this lock-in is characterized by strongly interconnected impediments, occurring at every link of the value chains, such as lack of availability of improved varieties and methods of plant protection, scarcity of quantified references on crop successions, complexity of the knowledge to be acquired by farmers, logistical constraints to harvest collection, and difficulties of coordination within the emerging value chains. On the basis of this lock-in analysis, that could concern other European countries, the article proposes levers aimed at encouraging actors to incorporate a greater diversity of crops into their productive systems: adaptation of standards and labelling, better coordination between stakeholders to fairly share added value within value chains, and combination of genetic, agronomic, technological, and organizational innovations.

International audience; AbstractIn agriculture, not all sociotechnical niches seek to plant the seeds of further regime transition: Some niches are designed to last as stable subnetworks harboring alternative agri-food systems. However, such niches often interact with sociotechnical regimes, leading to controversies, conflicts, and threats to niches sustainability. This situation calls for proactive governance of niche-regime interactions. We studied the innovation process in the “Corsican clementine” niche, using semi-structured interviews and participant observation. We wondered how local actors have been dealing with three controversial innovations: a clementine variety, a biological pest control method, and a pruning technique. Cross-analysis of the three innovations shows that (i) the niche’s innovation pathway can be diverted by regime-driven innovations; (ii) to protect their niche, local actors set collective rules, both formal and informal; and (iii) controversies over technical innovations make niche-regime tensions more visible, leading local actors to make collective decisions for governing the innovation pathway. This study is the first to highlight the key role of sociotechnical controversies in niche governance.

International audience; Agronomists aim to design or co-design agricultural systems that help farmers better meet the challenges of sustainability. In that aim, they need to adapt the way they design to respond to farm diversity, and to deal with knowledge gaps and uncertainty. This study sets out to improve understanding of design reasoning in agronomy. Our assumption is that tracking different reasoning patterns to their roots will shed light on conditions of their development and provide a better understanding of how new agronomic approaches emerge. To do so, we coupled a genealogical approach with a characterization of design regimes. Our work is based on a body of published work by French agronomists from the 18th century to the 21th, selected for their design-oriented nature. Applying an analytical framework built on design theory, we characterized five archetypical design regimes that emerged in connection with developments in the organization of agricultural R&D and shifts in agronomy's epistemological trends. For each one, we described an archetype of agronomists' reasoning, as well as the organizational model and performance logics that conditioned its development. Our results show first that the chains of cognitive operations that make up the agronomists' reasoning are different in each regime, as for example the way agronomists define the design issue and how they explore innovative concepts. Second, our analysis shows that each reasoning pattern generates a specific kind of output which offer farmers different action capabilities: for example, action rules that farmers simply apply, or design support tools to help farmers design techniques themselves. Comparing the design regimes, we identified four factors that influenced agro-nomists' design explorations: (i) their representations of agriculture, (ii) the scientific tools they use, (iii) their interactions with farmers, and (iv) their links with other scientific disciplines. We finally discuss the contribution of design science to better understanding of the diversity of design reasoning patterns in agronomy and we bring to light some avenues for future research with a view to enriching agronomists' " design toolbox " and supporting co-design in agriculture. We expect this work to offer a useful perspective to agronomists starting a design oriented work to support the evolution of practices on farm.

Crop diversification can improve the sustainability of Western agriculture. In particular, pulses are crops that can help both agriculture and the food industry more ecological, as they reduce greenhouse gas emissions and offer opportunities to reduce animal-based food consumption. However, the development of those crops in Europe remains locked-in by major crops that have been co-developed to a greater extent both in farming and food systems. After recalling the major mechanisms that lead to this lock-in, this article proposes to adopt a co-evolution framework to tackle with a dual transition of both agriculture and food systems. We question how the current societal trends in the agrifood system offer new opportunities for pulses, and how simultaneous changes both in production and consumption can occur to facilitate this dual transition. Based on various insights from the literature, and some points of views from stakeholders in France - taken here as examples - we argue that to develop pulses, strong support is required from public institutions to coordinate and guide the multiple actors involved in the same direction.

Bien loin d'une simple fusion entre agronomie et écologie, l'agroécologie apparaît comme un projet innovant, qui se positionne à la fois dans le champ des sciences de la nature, des sciences économiques et sociales, de la politique et de l'action. L'agroécologie nous conduit à explorer de nouveaux champs de savoir, aux interfaces entre disciplines, sur les impacts agronomiques des régulations biologiques autant que sur les systèmes socioécologiques. Mais, plus encore, elle nous engage à faire évoluer nos manières de travailler : développer les approches systémiques, en renonçant aux séduisantes simplifications du type "un problème, un intrant" ; revaloriser les savoirs locaux et les mettre en synergie avec les savoirs scientifiques ; décloisonner l'innovation, en repositionnant l'agriculture au sein des territoires et des systèmes alimentaires ; enfin, favoriser les dynamiques d'apprentissage individuel et collectif, source d'innovation et d'adaptation aux situations locales., Far from a simple merger between agronomy and ecology, agroecology is an innovative project, concerning simultaneously the fields of natural sciences, of economic and social sciences, politics and action. Agroecology encourages us to explore new fields of knowledge, at the interface of disciplines, on the agronomical impacts of biological regulations, as far as on the socioecological systems. Yet, it mainly urges us to change our ways of working: develop systemic approach, while giving up attractive simplifications such as "one problem, one input"; value local knowledge, while mixing it with scientific knowledge; open up innovation by positioning agriculture at the heart of territories and food systems; finally promote individual and collective learning, source of innovation and adaptation to local situations.

L’utilisation de fumures organiques dans les systemes de polyculture-elevage d’Afrique de l’Ouest est essentielle pour leur durabilite et leur productivite. Certains paysans mettent en place des modes de gestion des fumures organiques atypiques. Sont-ils des sources potentielles d’innovation ? Dans l’ouest du Burkina Faso, nous avons repere differents modes atypiques de gestion des fumures organiques, analyse les logiques d’action des paysans et decrit les savoirs locaux sous-jacents. L’evaluation multicritere des performances des systemes atypiques, comparees a celles des systemes dominants nous a permis d’apprehender leur durabilite et d’identifier des modes de gestion des fumures organiques originaux (marchandisation versus diversification de la production). Sans etre transposables, ces pratiques atypiques sont source d’enseignements a mobiliser pour la co-conception de modes de gestion des fumures organiques innovants bases sur les connaissances locales.

International audience; Agriculture is facing increasing innovation challenges to meet current societal expectations, yet very few design science studies are devoted to it. This paper highlights some of the particularities of the objects, reasoning and organization of design in agriculture that may open fruitful scientific dialogue between design scientists and agricultural scientists. We first provide an overview of the broad range of objects that are designed in agriculture, and point out their specific characteristics with regard to design. We then identify some particular challenges of design activities in agriculture and review how they have been addressed up to now. Finally, we discuss how design challenges and characteristics in agriculture can contribute to current debate in the field of design science. We propose two main lines of inquiry and debate: enhancing the links between design reasoning and organization, and further conceptualizing the status of use situations in design to deal with uncertainties and complexity in design processes. Acknowledgements: We thank our two research divisions at INRA (French National Institute for Agricultural Research) for their support to the research on design in agriculture: the Science for Action and Development (SAD) division and the Environment & Agronomy (EA) division. This work was realized on the initiative of the newly born INRA institute for design in agrifood systems. We thank Liz Libbrecht for language editing the English version of this paper, and are deeply grateful to the three anonymous reviewers for their comments that were of great help for improving this article.

Launched in France in 2008, the national "Ecophyto" plan, aiming "if possible" at a reduction of 50% of the pesticides use within 10 years, is a failure. After the first five years of its implementation, pesticide consumption has increased. Acknowledging this failure, the French government recently announced a new version of the plan (Ecophyto 2) although some aspects of its content remain unknown. For the authors of this paper (agronomists and sociologists), failure was predictable, given the characteristics of Ecophyto 1's implemented actions. They show it by the analysis of two of the flagship initiatives of the plan (monitoring health plant "bulletin", database allowing to assess in real time the risks of pests, and the "DEPHY farms", an experimental network supposed to disseminate good practices, and the study of the indicator measuring pesticide use. But the failure is even more due to the plan's main focus on farmers and advisors practices regardless of the broader effects of the "socio-technical lock-in" including a wide range of actors all interdependent and strongly engaged in pesticides' logic of uses. Ecophyto plan has nevertheless a symbolic effect, which could be determinant at mid-and long-terms: public authorities sent the signal of the upcoming end of pesticide massive use in agriculture., Le plan national Ecophyto, lancé en 2008 par le gouvernement français, qui visait une réduction de l’usage des pesticides de 50 % en dix ans, "si possible", est un échec : en effet, au cours des cinq premières années de son application, la consommation de ces produits a augmenté. Ce constat a conduit les pouvoirs publics à annoncer un plan Ecophyto 2, en cours de mise en place. Pour les auteurs de cet article (agronomes et sociologues), l’échec était prévisible, au vu des caractéristiques des actions mises en place. Ils le montrent par l’analyse de deux actions phares du plan (le Bulletin de santé du végétal, base de l’information diffusée pour évaluer en temps réel les risques de bioagresseurs, et le réseau DEPHY de fermes de démonstration, conçu pour expérimenter et déployer des techniques économes en produits phytosanitaires), et l’analyse de l’usage fait des indicateurs de suivi du plan.Mais l’échec est imputable, plus encore peut-être, au fait que les actions n’ont ciblé que les agriculteurs et leurs conseillers, sans tenir compte des effets de "verrouillage sociotechnique", c’est-à-dire des interdépendances qui relient l’ensemble des acteurs économiques engagés dans la logique de systèmes agricoles pour lesquels les pesticides jouent un rôle de pivot. Le plan Ecophyto a cependant envoyé un signal symbolique fort, qui peut être déterminant à moyen et long termes : les pouvoirs publics annoncent clairement la fin de l’usage massif des pesticides en agriculture.

International audience; Nitrogen fertilization has been widely studied in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), with a view to maximizing local yields and obtaining high grain protein contents. It has long been accepted that nitrogen nutrition must be non limiting throughout the crop cycle for these targets to be reached. However, studies over the last 20 years have shown that some periods of N deficiency are detrimental, whereas others have no impact on grain yield. There is, therefore, still a need to define the precise N deficiency path that can be tolerated. Nitrogen nutrition index (NNI) is an appropriate indicator of N deficiency. Based on experiments with wheat crops showing various patterns of NNI dynamics from the start of stem elongation to flowering, we aimed to identify a minimum nitrogen nutrition path, including periods of N deficiency, defining the threshold above which there is no detrimental impact on wheat crop yield. We used experimental data from 18 site-year experiments, each including 1-14 cultivars and 2-8 fertilization strategies, with determinations of crop NNI at four growth stages (Z30, Z32, Z39 and Z60 on the Zadoks scale). Experimental treatments were assigned to two groups: those with and without yield loss due to N fertilization strategy, relative to the maximum yield in each trial. Using receiver operating characteristics curve analysis, we identified the NNI path best distinguishing between the two groups of treatments. We found that the lowest acceptable NNI value (i.e. the lowest value for which there was no yield loss), increased during the crop cycle. We characterized, for the cultivars studied, periods of N deficiency during vegetative growth that did not lead to a decrease in yield or grain protein content, and even some periods in which the deficiency improved nitrogen use efficiency. Finally, we concluded that references in NNI should be revised for more efficient N management and the threshold NNI path could be used to determine timing of N fertilizer application on the basis of real-time crop N status monitoring.

Las actividades agrícolas en la Pampa argentina tienen centrado en la producción de soja desde los años 1990. La resultante sistemas de cultivo pueden no ser sostenible en el largo plazo debido a la desarrollo de las malas hierbas tolerantes a glifosato, la homogeneización de mosaicos de paisajes y contaminaciones. En este caso, hemos utilizado el seguimiento en la finca método de la innovación para producir los recursos para el diseño de alternativas. Las cinco etapas de seguimiento de la innovación en las explotaciones agrícolas fueron (1) la caracterización de la dominante a base de soja sistema de cultivo, (2) la identificación de los productores en desarrollo sistemas alternativos, (3) descripción de estos cultivos sistemas y su lógica agronómica, que es el vínculo entre las prácticas de productores y sus motivos, cuando la elección de estos prácticas, (4) la evaluación multicriterio de las actuaciones de los sistemas, y (5) el análisis de las condiciones de desarrollo de los sistemas más eficientes. Se identificaron 22 alternativo sistemas de cultivo desarrolladas por los agricultores. Estos sistemas todos incluir las prácticas originales: la diversificación de las rotaciones de cultivos (22 casos), el regreso ocasional a la labranza (15 casos), y baja el uso de pesticidas (16 casos). Algunos sistemas alternativos fueron más sostenible que el sistema basado en soja, como se muestra por la menor nivel de riesgo económico, una mejor capacidad para mantener el suelo orgánico contenido de carbono, y menos malas hierbas tolerantes a glifosato. Nuestros resultados espectáculo en general que el seguimiento de las innovaciones en la explotación es una método eficiente para obtener referencias sobre sistemas de cultivos alternativos desarrollado por los agricultores. Farming activities in the Argentinean Pampa have focused on soybean production since the 1990s. The resulting cropping systems may not be sustainable in the long run due to development of glyphosate-tolerant weeds, homogenization of landscape mosaics, and pollutions. Here, we used the tracking on-farm innovation method to produce resources for the design of alternatives. The five steps of tracking on-farm innovation were (1) characterization of the soybean-based dominant cropping system, (2) identification of producers developing alternative systems, (3) description of these cropping systems and their agronomic logic, which is the link between the producer practices and their motives when choosing these practices, (4) multicriteria assessment of the performances of the systems, and (5) analysis of the development conditions of the most efficient systems. We identified 22 alternative cropping systems developed by farmers. These systems all include original practices: diversification of crop rotations (22 cases), occasional return to tillage (15 cases), and low pesticide use (16 cases). Some alternative systems were more sustainable than the soybean-based system, as shown by lower economic risk level, better ability to maintain soil organic carbon content, and less glyphosate-tolerant weeds. Our results show overall that tracking on-farm innovations is an efficient method to get references on alternative cropping systems developed by farmers. EEA Balcarce Fil: Salembier, Chloe. Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique; Francia Fil: Elverdin, Julio Horacio. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Balcarce; Argentina Fil: Meynard, Jean-Marc. Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique. Unité Mixte de Recherches; Francia. Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique. Unité Mixte de Recherches. AgroParisTec; Francia

Chapitre 8; Faced with the crises and challenges associated with global change, innovation has been put forward as the solution sine qua none to construct adaptation strategies for agriculture. However, while various technical solutions have been discovered by farmers and researchers, and while the principles of sustainable development have been put forward in public policy, the implementation of a sustainable agricultural alternative has been slow in becoming established. This perspective demands that agronomic research become more innovative. In France, the Sciences for Action and Development (Sciences pour l’Action et le Développement (SAD)) division of the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)) was created in 1979 to better understand the reasons for the resistance of farmers to the adoption of innovations associated with the dominant productivist model. Using a systemic approach, the research in the SAD division revealed the diversity of innovation processes by which farmers adapted to change. This research also gave rise to the development of certain technical solutions, based on the principles of agro-ecology and territorial innovation, and which appeared capable of helping a diversity of agricultural systems to reorient themselves towards greater sustainability. During this research, the principle of co-construction of solutions involving researchers and practitioners became affirmed. Faced with the challenges of climate change, these researches need a more prospective approaches.

Many organic farmers hesitate to grow winter oilseed rape (WOSR), despite its usefulness for crop rotations and animal fodder, because it is attacked by many insects, which are difficult to control without chemical treatments. In a geographically broad network of farmer’s fields, we analysed the effect of various crop management factors and of the surrounding field environment on a large range of insects known to damage WOSR: root maggot (Delia radicum L.), cabbage stem flea beetle (Psylliodes chrysocephala L.), rape stem weevil (Ceuthorhynchus napi Gyl) and pollen beetle (Meligethes aeneus F.). Our results confirm the effect of sowing date, plant density and soil tillage regime on root maggot attacks and cabbage stem flea beetle larva infestation. Early sowing tended to increase root maggot damage whereas it was associated with a lower level of attack of cabbage stem flea beetle. High plant density tended to decrease the damage or the attack of all insects. We show that nitrogen availability in the soil affect cabbage stem flea beetle, stem weevil levels and pollen beetle damage: the negative effect of soil nitrogen content on pollen beetle damage may be related to the significant effect of nitrogen on plant vigour and, therefore, to the compensation of pollen beetle damage on new racemes. If all insects were considered together, the proportion of land under WOSR in the region and the surrounding environment had a significant effect on pest occurrence. In regions with a high proportion of land under WOSR, the proportion of plants attacked by root maggot and pollen beetle tended to increase. Conversely, regions with high proportions of land under WOSR tended to have a smaller proportion of plants with cabbage stem flea beetle larvae or damage, whatever the environment surrounding the field. For almost all the pests considered, the fields displaying the most severe pest attacks in regions with more than 1.2% WOSR were bounded by trees, hedges and bushes. Conversely, in regions with a lower percentage of land under WOSR, woodland around the field reduced the occurrence of pest attacks

International audience; Numerous signs underline an urgent need for innovation in the current agriculture and food industries. However, even though the components of the agrifood systems are all strongly interconnected, the design processes to im-prove theirsustainabilities are still mostly managed separately. This frequently leads to innovating inone domain in order to adapt to the constraints or specifications of the other,such as tweaking the farming systems to address processing issues, or the other way round. The objectives of this paper are first to show the limits of such an organization, and second to provide a heuristic framework to organize the design of coupled innovations, by reconnecting the dynamics of innovation in agriculture and food, with a view to improving the whole agrifoodsystem. Our framework highlights that working at this level requires designing in raw production, exchange, processing,and consumption, while taking into account synergies or antagonisms between upstream and downstream. Thus, the innovations are not only technological–e.g.concerning cropping systems or processing–but also organizational and institutional. Based on several examples, in the cereal, linseed, legume, and market-gardeningproductions, at the junction of agriculture and food sciences, we also show that this perspective of designing coupled innovations calls for a renewed research agenda. Three main domains are thus questioned. First, coupling requires an innovative design process for radical innovations, challenging the coordination of exploration in both domains. Second, the development of “innovation niches” outside the dominant sociotechnical regime, in order to bypass the lock-in from the dominant system, faces the difficulty of favoring the building of renewednetworks of actors, which were used to working separately so far. Third, the necessity to share expectations and knowledge, and to design together innovations that suit all sides, leads to making several recommendations for the governance of the design process. Finally, we conclude that the need for innovation in the agrifood systems requires going beyond the historical specialization of skills, and the usual forms of coordination between designers.

Grain legume production in Europe has recently come under scrutiny. Although legume crops are often promoted to provide environmental services, European farmers tend to turn to non-legume crops. It is assumed that high variability in legume yields explains this aversion, but so far this hypothesis has not been tested. Here, we estimate the variability of major grain legume and non-legume yields in Europe and the Americas from yield time series over 1961–2013. Results show that grain legume yields are significantly more variable than non-legume yields in Europe. These differences are smaller in the Americas. Our results are robust at the level of the statistical methods. In all regions, crops with high yield variability are allocated to less than 1% of cultivated areas. Although the expansion of grain legumes in Europe may be hindered by high yield variability, some species display risk levels compatible with the development of specialized supply chains.

Publication Inra prise en compte dans l'analyse bibliométrique des publications scientifiques mondiales sur les Fruits, les Légumes et la Pomme de terre. Période 2000-2012. http://prodinra.inra.fr/record/256699; International audience; On the volcanic soils of the uplands of the French West Indies, banana monocropping has been practised since about 1980, mostly with large inputs of chemicals and replanting every three to five years after ploughing. However, in Guadeloupe less intensive cropping systems with only few added chemicals are still being used. The effects of the intensive practices on the physical, chemical and biological attributes of soils were evaluated on 34 farmed fields, which were selected to include the diverse soils and management practices found in the uplands of South Basse-Terre. Management was classified into four groups to differentiate effects of fertilizers, nematicides and tillage over at least 10 years. The population of the parasitic nematode Radopholus similis was, on average, greater 3 months after the application of nematicides. Thus, the use of nematicides increases the dependency of yield on nematicides. Ploughing decreased soil organic matter in the 0–10 cm layer as well as microbial respiration and earthworm biomass, but increased banana root infestation by R. similis. Ploughing was also associated with a change in soil structure, as revealed by the decrease in soil water content at −1 kPa potential and the increased infiltration rate of water into the 0–10 cm layer. The use of fertilizers has advantages for the maintenance or increase of soil reserves of K. However, due to the decreasing of negative electrical charges in the lower layers of andosols, where pH remains low, the majority of the cations supplied by fertilizers, mainly potassium, are prone to leaching.

La production d'outils d'aide a la decision est un domaine tres actif, mais il est largement reconnu que de tels outils ne sont pas toujours utilises comme leurs concepteurs l'ont prevu. Forts de ce constat, nous avons noue une collaboration entre une ergonome et un agronome, pour analyser la diversite des usages d'outils de conduite des cultures existants. Cette analyse met en evidence ce que nous proposons d'appeler des systemes d'information et de conseil (SIC), organisations (temporelles et spatiales) de dispositifs humains et materiels qui permettent de construire et de diffuser les informations pour decider de la conduite locale de processus agroecologiques. Nous discutons comment cette notion peut etre mise a profit pour faire evoluer la prise en compte des usages et des utilisateurs dans les processus de conception d'outils d'aide a la conduite de processus agroecologiques.

In organic wheat, nitrogen is one of the key limiting factors responsible for irregular productivity and low quality. On arable farms, the decreasing use of N-organic sources such as forage legumes, manures and composts relative to mixed-farms requires the development of suitable fertility strategies based on the use of off-farm organic fertilizers. The Azodyn crop model was previously adapted to organic fertilization and evaluated on various field trials in order to predict grain yield, grain protein content and soil mineral N at harvest. This paper analyses the value of Azodyn-Org as a decision-tool for managing N fertilization by (1) evaluating the economic benefits of an organic N application and (2) selecting optimal fertilization strategies according to farmers’ constraints and conditions. It appears that Azodyn-Org is relevant for selecting appropriate strategies in various conditions only if the multiple limiting factors (e.g. weeds, diseases, soil compaction) effect on yield was well predicted. In these conditions, its use could allow to identify the fields where an organic N application is profitable, through rule-based simulations. The development of an early risk-assessment method to predict the effect of major limiting factors is required before providing this tool to users. Other methodological elements of model-based explorations are addressed in the discussion.

International audience; DéciBlé is a simulation tool intended to support the design and evaluation of technical management for the wheat crop. Crop management is here considered from a strategic planning point of view, as the choice of technical decision rules for the whole growing period rather than day-by-day decisions for each operation. DéciBlé simulates the consequences for technical operations and crop production of a set of decision rules over a wide range of possible contexts (regions, year-to-year weather variation, fields, etc.). It is a simulation in which two models interact: a decision and a crop model. The decision model represents the decision rules through a specific formalisation and generates the operations for each context. The crop model is a set of modules simulating plant development, crop environment and yield accumulation implied by these operations in this context through the generation of loss functions or risk estimates. The crop model consists of a set of empirical models based on agronomic diagnosis and experimental references widely used in France. A general validation of DéciBlé is carried out using observed data from a network of field trials. The wheat development stages are simulated within 4 days of the observed dates in more than 80% of the cases and the yield components and final yield with differences of less than 15% from the real values in more than 75% of the cases. We discuss (i) the causes of unsatisfactory predictions and the prospects for improving the various modules of the crop model; (ii) the use of the simulator in some decision problems; and (iii) the position of DéciBlé among the existing models for crop management decision help, emphasising the originality of the method of decision representation.